Fuzzy Logic

Three

Lucas watched Ashley bolt down the stairs like her skirt was on fire.

He knew the feeling. His pants felt capable of melting steel-twenty-five hundred degrees Fahrenheit was all that was needed, and he was certain he had achieved it.

Oh, man, he sure hoped he knew what the hell he was doing here. He didn't want to ruin his relationship with Ashley, but he couldn't stand by any longer and pretend he didn't care about her in a way that wasn't even remotely brotherly.

If he tried to tell her his feelings and she rejected him, well, hopefully it wouldn't affect their friendship. But this way-this waiting, this wanting, this ache-he couldn't live like this. He had to know if there was any chance, however remote, that Ashley might be attracted to him in return.

So far, she looked a little confused. But she wasn't balking at his overtures either.

And if he wasn't mistaken, she had enjoyed that kiss.

The feeling was mutual. Tasting her tongue had about seared his clothes right off his body.

Ashley came back up the stairs, her heels clicking on the hardwood floors. Her friend Kindra was with her, wearing shorts and a tank top, her auburn hair back in a ponytail.

"Oh, hey, Lucas."

"Hi, Kindra. How's it going?"

"Good." Kindra set her purse down on the floor. "Except I'm so ready for my wedding to be over. Just done and over. My advice to everyone and anyone is to skip the wedding and elope." She glanced at the tables of products. "But I also figure if Mack and I can survive planning this wedding from hell without killing each other, then we can make it through anything."

"Well, I hope it all goes well for you." Lucas put the lid back on the peach powder and returned the jar to its box. He was tempted to take it home with him, but it didn't make sense to remove it from the source of its true enticement-Ashley.

Ashley got him hot, not the powder.

"Are you staying for the party, Lucas?" Kindra asked.

"No!" Ashley said, horror in her voice. Then she tucked her blond curls behind her ear and cleared her throat. "Men can't be at these parties. It's company policy."

"That's logical," Kindra said. "Otherwise it could have the potential to dissolve into an orgy."

Lucas tried to picture it, but couldn't. "Your friends must be more exciting than mine."

Kindra laughed.

"Lucas was helping me set up, but now he's leaving. Right, Lucas?" Ashley gave him a bright smile, a warning in her eyes.

He stared back. "Right. I'll get out of your hair. But I'm coming back after the party to do some shopping. There are| a few things I'd like to try-hands-on."

Ashley's jaw dropped. Then she glanced at Kindra, who wasn't even really listening to them. She was fingering a black silk blindfold.

"Lucas has this need to know how everything works. Bikes, microwaves, edible underwear-" Ashley broke off, her hand on her chest. Her cheeks were stained pink.

She was blushing. And babbling. Lucas figured that was a good sign. If she wasn't interested in him at all, she would have just told him to knock it off and taken the lotion away from him.

Instead, she looked confused.

"I'll see you later then. I'll give you a call to make sure everyone has left." He started for the stairs.

"Okay."

Lucas shot a long lingering look at that purple tickle-whip as he walked by it. He could really, really see the appeal in that. Brushing that feather over Ashley's breasts… he glanced back at her over his shoulder.

He definitely had the need to see how that worked.

Ashley broke out in a sweat.

Holy smokes, Lucas had just checked out the tickle-whip. She was sure of it. He had stared at it, then at her. Like he was picturing using it.

On her.

Oh, my.

She didn't move until the front door downstairs slammed shut, then she collapsed on her bright blue sofa. There was sweat on her inner thighs. Sweat on her goddamn inner thighs. Maybe her air-conditioning was broken.

"Is it hot in here, Kindra?"

"No." Kindra shook the box of edible underwear then put it back down. "Unless you count the sexual tension between you and Lucas. That was hot enough to melt chocolate."

Ashley fanned herself. "There is no sexual tension between Lucas and me! He's my little brother's best friend. My little brother, who is a genius, by the way. And Lucas is his genius friend. Who is only twenty-five years old. Way too young for me, way too smart for me, even if I were interested, which I'm not."

She was protesting too much. She knew it and winced.

Kindra raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you poor thing. Suffering from sexual tension and delusions."

Was she? She certainly felt delusional. Like she had dreamed that erotic kiss they had shared.

"Just a little friendly advice… why don't you just go for it? You like Lucas, don't you?"

"As a person, yes, of course I do. We grew up together. He's a very sweet, honest guy. I love him like a brother." Which made her current feelings sick and incestuous.

"Maybe there's more to those feelings than that. You're not the kind to just sleep with a guy for the heck of it, and Lucas doesn't seem like the kind of guy to do that either. So I maybe there's something really there and you should explore it." Kindra picked up a vibrator and waved it around. "I don't think Lucas is really all that interested in sex toys. I think he's interested in you. That's why he's coming back here tonight."

Oh, damn, he was coming back, wasn't he. She honestly wasn't sure how she felt about that. "You know, the problem with your friends getting married is that they suddenly think they know everything about relationships. Just because you and Mack are happy nesting in your house with your poodle doesn't mean the rest of us are looking for that."

Kindra laughed. "That may be true. But if love and marriage were there, you wouldn't say no to them, would you?'

No, she supposed she wouldn't. But the thought of love and marriage at all, let alone in relation to Lucas-well, it gave her hives. She literally itched and ached to get out of her own skin.

"And you can't tell me you aren't completely preoccupied thinking about Lucas, because you haven't even once mentioned how you hate my outfit, which is usually the first thing you say when you see me."

Well, now that Kindra mentioned it. "Those shorts do look kind of outdated, Kindra. They go practically to your knees."

“My fiancé doesn't seem to mind my clothes." She grinned. "Though truthfully, he prefers me in no clothes at all. And given the look on Lucas's face, I bet he would love to see you naked."

The doorbell rang. Ashley stood up, relieved to escape any conversation that mentioned love, nudity, and Lucas in the same sentence. "Sometimes it's better to leave things a mystery."

Kindra cleared her throat, a smile on her face. "And sometimes the real thing, with a man who adores you, is better than any sex toy could ever be."

Ashley couldn't dispute that. "I'm not arguing with you Kindra, but before I can even consider falling in love and start planning my own wedding from hell, I need to sell some sex toys and get my credit card debt down into the single digits. And even if I did fall in love and get married, it wouldn't be with Lucas."

She didn't think. It would be highly unlikely. Even if she did already love Lucas, it wasn't love. Or was it?

The thought had her rushing down the stairs too quickly, stumbling, and nearly breaking her neck before she skidded to a stop at the front door. She threw the door open. "Hi! Thank you so much for coming."

The next ten minutes were spent answering the door and giving greetings. Then Ashley was knee-deep in her demos, passing lotions and candles around for her friends to smell.

It should have been enough of a distraction to turn her mind from Lucas. Instead, it only made it worse. With every laugh, every bawdy remark someone made, every product she picked up, she thought about Lucas and his strange, arousing behavior.

It didn't help that her brother Jason's girlfriend, Hope, was there, showing an incredibly inappropriate amount of interest in every single item. Hello. Boyfriend's sister here. Didn't Hope know that she was getting all sorts of gross mental images?

Of course she had invited the girl, but she had just thought Hope would come along and buy some shaving cream out of charity. Her brother's girlfriend was a medical student, aspiring to be a surgeon. She wore glasses. She wasn't supposed to be coveting a book on sexual positions.

Ashley's friend Trish was glancing through the book with Hope. "Ooh, that's a good one."

"Done it already," Hope said.

"No kidding?" Respect crept into Trish's voice.

Bile rose in Ashley's mouth. She turned and grabbed her glass of wine.

"It's the scientist in Jason," Hope continued. "He likes to try and defy gravity."

Eeew! She so did not want to know that about her brother. And God, did that mean Lucas would be the same way? Huh. Now that was kind of sexy.

"So he just has to hold on here with his…"

"Hope!" Ashley blurted out. "TMI-too much information! Come on, this is my little brother you're talking about.”

Hope blinked those innocent looking brown eyes behind her owlish glasses. She giggled. "Oh, sorry, Ash."

Her cousin Jenny stopped sniffing the strawberry edible lotion to demand, "Bring out the vibrators and stuff, Ashley. We want to get to the good stuff."

Pasting a smile on her face, Ashley held up Pinky and gave her little rehearsed speech about his many features, including being waterproof. All of her guests had wish lists she'd passed around, so they could write down the names of products that they were interested in as they came around.

Everyone started writing after viewing Pinky, except for Trish and their friend Violet, who looked speechless.

"Aren't you going to write this one down?" Hope asked Violet. "It looks like a good one, and that's a great price."

Violet just swallowed hard and shook her head. "I don't think I would even know what to do with that."

Ashley laughed, though she had a feeling Violet wasn't kidding. She'd seen Violet's latest boyfriend. Sweet, but a total geek. Which about summed up all of Violet's boyfriends.

Hope turned to Trish. "Well, what about you? Didn't you like this one?"

Ashley took a gander at Hope's wineglass. Empty. It figured. She had a strong feeling Hope was drunk. At least she hoped she was, or Ashley was going to have a little chat with Jason.

"I don't do vibrators or dildos or whatever you want to call them."

"Why not?" Hope looked genuinely puzzled.

Trish stuck her pencil behind her ear, where it jutted through her short hair. "Because you all have boyfriends and it's okay to play around with stuff like that. I'm single. So if I get a vibrator, that's all I've got going on. And I don't want to become dildo dependent."

The room erupted with laughter. Ashley snorted before she clapped her hand over her mouth. "Dildo dependent?"

"Yes, I've heard women get so dependent on their vibrators, that they can't have orgasms without them. They have to wean themselves off the machinery. I just don't want to go there."

Three people scratched Pinky off their lists.

Ashley glared at Trish. She could see her point, but she was trying to make a quick buck here. She was going to pay her bills off and reform. She was going to stop buying clothes beyond her means. But first she needed to push some product.

Trish gave her a sheepish look and mouthed sorry. Then her voice rose enthusiastically. "But I'm definitely buying those colored condoms. A single woman always needs to have condoms on hand."

Violet patted Trish's leg. "Nice save."

Ashley was starting to think she was learning way more than she ever wanted to know about her friends' and her family's sex lives.